Thursday, February 26, 2009

Peter Coyote Article About Cuba

In today's San Francisco Chronicle, they printed an article by the actor and writer, Peter Coyote, about traveling in Cuba. He is a Bay Area lad after all. People in the Bay Area love to go traveling and meeting new people, experiencing other cultures. (Personally, I head up Slightly Agoraphobic Twats Against Nirvana ... so I won't be traveling there. I could never be a Van Dyke ... but that's an article of a different fish -- see this week's New Yorker.)

Peter Coyote is a damn fine writer! The article is beautifully written and very interesting. Here's an excerpt:

Eventually, our bags our cleared, our coffee cups are drained and we are released to the balmy winds of Cuba. Three minutes from the clean and modern airport, I am surprised to see a farmer plowing an extensive field with a team of oxen. Then we pass a cart on the road drawn by an ox and I am reminded of the costs the U.S. trade embargo has levied on Cuba. It is a poor country and must struggle for the resources of energy, cash, etc., that many countries take for granted. It's not, as neo-cons and free-market ideologues would have us believe, simply because the economy is socialist -- France, Britain and Italy have all been socialist countries at one time or another, and thrived. It is because as soon as it became clear that Fidel intended a communist model in Cuba, the United States reacted as if he were a syphilitic they had caught in the first lady's bed. Thus began the relentless 50-year struggle to overthrow, undermine and suborn the Cuban revolution -- an unseemly intention where the richest, most powerful country in the world dedicated inordinate amounts of resources to destabilizing a tiny Caribbean nation and, if they couldn't assassinate its leader, tried in whatever way they could to destabilize its economy and terrorize its people. Isn't that how we would define terrorism, or have I missed something?

President Obama, please revoke the embargo against Cuba!

Hey, they, too, fly the old red, white, and blue!

Plus, if you ask me, I think they're going to be in better shape than we are if the collapse keeps collapsing. They already know how to get things done without all the damn gadgets and oil. We're gonna be begging them for oxen!

Friday, February 20, 2009

CANADIANS LOVE OBAMA!!!

President Obama is welcomed to Canada by Governor General Michaelle Jean and a contingent of Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (White House/Pete Souza)

Dear Readers, it warmed the cockles of my heart to see those photographs of our president visiting the land of my birth -- Canada. And when I saw the photo of the Royal Canadian Mounties saluting President Obama and Governor General Michaelle Jean -- and they looked genuinely happy to meet and talk with each other -- it did bring tears to these 59-year old eyes.

Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Toronto Star:

OTTAWA – The first black president of the United States and Canada's first black Governor General knew theirs was a historic encounter – and they appeared to revel in it from the moment they met Thursday.

Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean was the first of a handful of Canadian dignitaries to greet Barack Obama as he stepped off Air Force One onto Canadian soil for the first time as U.S. president.

"You would never have imagined that you and I could both be here like today, coming from African descent," Jean was quoted as telling the president as they began what insiders described as "soft and warm" exchange.

A Jean aide said the poignancy of the moment was not lost on either of them and may have given the pair "a form of added connection."

The two held an animated conversation on the tarmac that went beyond the formal dictates of protocol before the president was introduced to the other dignitaries, including Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and Canada's ambassador to the United States, Michael Wilson.

An Obama quip had Jean leaning back, laughing and throwing an arm around the president's back as they strode side-by-side into the reception centre for a private chat.

Jean's spokeswoman Marthe Blouin said "at that moment she was telling him that she felt it was like a love affair between him and Canadians."

"He said to her that he knew that, that he'd been informed that he was very popular in Canada. Then he joked and he added, 'Well, it's good to know because if things do not go well for me in the States, I know I can come to Canada.'

Vive la différence!!!

Was there such warmth during Bush’s visits?

Ah ... you forget too soon:

A top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien resigned on Tuesday after nearly a week of political tension over a remark she reportedly made about the president of the United States being a "moron".

Françoise Ducros, my hero.

Back a year ago, Ms. Manitoba wrote in this here blog about why she supported Obama and what she thought would happen if he got elected:

this may be one of the most important things ... his election will say something very important to the rest of the world - “We want change and did not agree with the policies that came before. We did not agree with the arrogant attitudes that came before. We want to be a true citizen of the world and not a bully.”

'nuff said.

Here are some more photos ...

U.S President Barack Obama (left) and Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean walk across the tarmac following his arrival in Ottawa, Thursday Feb. 19, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

4 year-old Benjamin Faulkner holds a sign as the U.S President Barack Obama drives past a goup waiting to catch a glimpse of his limo on Colonel By Drive in Ottawa on the Rideau Canal Thursday morning in preparation of U.S President Barack Obama visit to talk with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper Feb 19, 2009 in Ottawa. (ANDRE FORGET / SUN MEDIA)

Supporters of U.S. President Barack Obama wave as his motorcade arrives Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009, to meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on his first foreign trip as president. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Supporters of U.S. President Barack Obama stand next to a snowman on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Thursday, Feb., 19, 2009. President Barack Obama will meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his first foreign trip as President. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Merlin Cain, from Toronto, awaits the arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama, on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009. President Barack Obama will meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in his first foreign trip as President. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Threatened with foreclosure? DON'T LEAVE !!!

A couple of weeks back Amy Goodman wrote an op-ed piece about foreclosure and she said in it -- DON'T LEAVE, SQUAT! And Ms. Manitoba agrees wholeheartedly with her.

And now I read in my local rag that Acorn (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is launching a campaign to encourage families in foreclosure to refuse to leave their homes. They recently staged a rally in my home town, Oakland -- at the home of someone who was foreclosed but not evicted. And they've held similar rallies at homes in Los Angeles, New York, Tucson, Baltimore, Orlando, and Houston. Acorn is urging a moratorium on foreclosures.

We agree. Let's have a moratorium on foreclosures.

If you are having trouble paying your mortgage -- there is help out there.

Acorn has a new website totally dedicated to helping folks with foreclosure problems. Here's what they say on their website:

Acorn Housing Home Equity Loss Prevention (HELP) foreclosure counselors are ready to intervene on your behalf with your lender to bring your loan current. We have established relationships with 43 major lenders in the U.S. in order to better serve you. Last year, we helped over 20,000 families restructure their mortgages to have lower house payments. And this year we will help thousands more keep theequity they've built up in their homes.

They're services are free!

Are you secure in your home and would like to help others? Why not donate to Acorn? Click here for information on how to do that.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Jailing Kids for Cash

I just read an article in yesterday's paper that appalled me. Amy Goodman writes about a county in Pennsylvania (but suspects it's going on elsewhere) and its two judges who were convicted of jailing kids for cash. Here's an excerpt:

As many as 5,000 children in Pennsylvania have been found guilty, and up to 2,000 of them jailed, by two corrupt judges who received kickbacks from the builders and owners of private prison facilities that benefited. The two judges pleaded guilty in a stunning case of greed and corruption that is still unfolding. Judges Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. and Michael T. Conahan received $2.6 million in kickbacks while imprisoning children who often had no access to a lawyer. The case offers an extraordinary glimpse into the shameful private prison industry that is flourishing in the United States.

The whole things is worth reading. And you won't need caffeine to pump you up for the rest of the day. To read it, click here.

Here's another excerpt:

This scandal involves just one county in the U.S., and one relatively small private prison company. According to The Sentencing Project, “the United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.1 million people currently in the nation’s prisons or jails—a 500 percent increase over the past thirty years.” The Wall Street Journal reports that “[p]rison companies are preparing for a wave of new business as the economic downturn makes it increasingly difficult for federal and state government officials to build and operate their own jails.” For-profit prison companies like the Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut) are positioned for increased profits. It is still not clear what impact the just-signed stimulus bill will have on the private prison industry (for example, the bill contains $800 million for prison construction, yet billions for school construction were cut out).

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Caturday!

Yupperoonie, it's that time of week again, when we fart in the general direction of Republicans who will not play nice no matter how often they're told they should. Pfft! A pox on all your houses, we say. Sod off, you worthless buggers.

Here's Jon Stewart laying down the good smack to John Sununu, whiny Republican extraordinaire (remember all the stuff his Daddy was busted for back in, let's see, when was that?). And, of course, his own political positions are to the far right of Attila the Hun, but that's another story.

Anywho, it is Caturday, and teh video clip is to larf. Jon Stewart should be required watching for our spineless Democrats in Congress. Their performance with the Repubs has made me long for a third party more than ever before. However, I will say that Nancy P. has done us proud. She's got bigger brassier balls than the rest of the whingers combined, and it looks like she might be whupping some of her fellow congresscritters upside the haid in an attempt to force them to stand instead of grovel, for a change. Go, Nance!

Jon sure can crush the writhing bugscum of the Rebugosphere, can't he? Someone put a paper plate under Sununu's head, because I think Jon just handed it to him. Yay, Jon.

In other news, here's a test you can take to confirm your worst suspicions. I confirmed mine.

Credit to Bill over at The Evil Eyebrow for getting his suspicions confirmed first, thereby sending me tumbling arse over teakettle down the primrose path to Execution By Kitteh. Bill's got it pretty easy, akshurly. His feline seems less determined. Or maybe I just have more of the greedy little sods about.

A mass kitteh-sleeping-olympix training event is scheduled for today on account of teh rain, teh cold, and teh gray. Feh. I'm off to make beef stew, and an oxtail stew with barley. Stay warm, y'all, and have a happy Caturday and VD!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Happy Darwin Day!

Darwin developed his theory as a result of his voyages on the HMS Beagle (pictured above), during the course of which he observed on various islands the pressures of natural selection and how they modified creatures that had originally shared a single ancestor. Thanks to this great man of science, we now have some understanding of our own place in the vast array of living beings on Gaia our mother planet.

Today is also the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, an odd-looking human being who surpassed the limitations of being dirt-poor and unhandsome to become the President of the United States and lead the nation through some of its toughest times. In memory of which, we extend our good wishes to his fellow-Illinoisian and our current President, Barack Obama, who himself transcended similar difficulties and is now leading us at a time when we desperately need his excellent leadership.

As for Valentine's Day, bugger that commercially-created holiday, we say. Grab your sweetie right now and give them a royal rogering all weekend long. Celebrate science! The science of smelling just right to your partner, the science of airborne pheromones that make you want to do the horizontal samba.

Economy: Why They Threatened Martial Law

Yeah, it's news to me. But apparently not to those in the world of money.

Read and meep. No cats today. Cats cannot express how I feel about this adequately.

Now you know why we had a bailout. Now you know why we needed a bailout. We continue to need one. For those who think pulling your money out now is the answer — it'll be just as worthless in your hands as in the bank if the system collapses. Tough as it sounds, this is something we all need to ride out. Pretend you're reading a book that has DON'T PANIC in large, friendly letters on the cover.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Economy: Git Your Mad On!

Step right up! Git yer Mad on right here, folks, two for a dollar, step right UP!

Yeah, I know. I said I'd chillax. But you know what, the Walking Stupid out there, they just never give a body a minute's rest. C'mon, you know you're tearing your hair out with rage five or ten times a day. I just write about it more.

So, you probably just got laid off, or your partner, parent, kid, neighbour, or friend did, and you're sitting there watching the unemployment numbers climb, listening to the dismal reports on the economy, worrying as you see the big shots in your company meeting behind closed doors and sending out email about meeting the most recent quarterly targets (as in, NOT) and remembering the good old days when ordinary working people got bonuses. And wondering why in the fuckety fucking fuck our Republican Senators have their heads crammed up each others' asses crowing about how they're winning a victory against President Obama's Stimulus bill*. You know, the bill that was going to fund state and county level firefighters, police, food stamps, construction projects, and the like.

And then the paper/TV/radio or media of your choice decides to up and tell you that Wells Fargo, BofA, and Citibank just boughtfull-page ad space in the Sunday edition of the NYT and the WahPoo!, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars (the last time we looked, after a discount, such space would cost between $75K and $140K or more) just to reassure us dumb customers and taxpayers that those junkets and parties and freebies the banks are giving themselves with our money are

not junkets, but employee recognition events to thank and inspire team members who have worked very hard, like "our terrific mortgage team who helped us originate $230 billion in mortgages in the last year." Stumpf went on to say that the money for the recognition events would have come from company profits and not from the taxpayer financed bailout and he said canceling the events hurt not only his employees, "but the workers who depend on their business, the hospitality industry, hotel housekeepers, restaurant servers, the airlines." The CEO closed by saying "since we aren't thanking our award winners in person this year, we'll have to do it this way."

Now the right wingnut yammerati have been squawking fit to beat hell about how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and housing loans for working class and poor people is what broke the bank, but those of us who actually read occasionally know quite well that the real cause of the problem is toxic securities and financial instruments that you need a PhD to understand, that largely came about as a result of individual private banks deciding to cash in on the housing bubble and the house flippers by giving what they used to call Liar Loans, or NINJAs (No Income, No Job or Assets).

Those of us who actually bought or refinanced a home within the last ten years remember quite well sitting down with the banks to discuss terms and having them offer to have their appraisers inspect the premises, instead of using third-party independent appraisers; the fudging of the comps they pulled; the rewording of applications to create the illusion of more house for the return of more money; their insistence on HELOCs (Home Equity Line of Credit, for those not in the know); their securing of jumbo loans and wraparounds and how they all but twisted our arms to get us to pull out increasing equity, until it seemed that people were refinancing annually. So Mr. Stumpf (of Wells) and his celebration of the mortgage-floggers seems a mite — discomfiting, in light of the fact that he and his ilk are being hauled before Congress forthwith to answer to Barney Frank exactly what the fuck they thought they were doing with their taxpayer-generated largesse that will bind our children in debt slavery unto the nth generation.

Not that that will stop the dumb motherfuckers. President Obama had to kick a little ass in public to keep one bunch of greedbags from buying themselves a nice expensive 12-seater jet with their ill-gotten gains recently. Ctulhu alone knows what he'll have to do to keep these assholes' fat sweaty fingers out of our pockets this time around. Considering that all these father-raping buttlicks have MBAs or have been in the industry for longer than Methusaleh, you'd think they would have realized by now the REAL problem, i.e., PR.

Anybody with two working neurons knows that the public has, at best, a very limited attention span, which means you can rape their daughters, sodomize their sons, sell off their wives, burn their houses, and steal their cows, so long as you do not APPEAR to be doing any of the above. With a tear in your eye and a piously-clasped Bible and handkerchief, you can personally assault the lot of them, one before the other, so long as you remember to wear a nice black worsted and weep copiously about your trials and sufferings. Even as we speak, the pinhead wingnuts of the rightosphere are sobbing aloud at the terribleinjustice that the Democrats are committing upon the uber-wealthy engineers of our current fiscal fiasco, in attempting to limit corporate CEO emoluments to a mere half-a-million in salary and bonuses if they're taking public money.

The fact that none of these ninnyhammers has ever seen half a million dollars in their own lives bothers them not a whit. They will fight for the right of the greedy to plunder us at will before they acknowledge that we, the people, have a right to a return on our investment in bailouts for the bankers.

And while they're doing their Walrus and Carpenter act on behalf of the bankers, they're whooping and cheering about how the defeat of the Stimulus bill really means a revival of the Republican party, and their return to power. Can human beings possibly be so deluded, you ask yourself. Regretfully, they can. Instead of doing their part in jumpstarting the economy, they're doing their best to slice from the bill anything that will support the common people. Schools? Cut. Hospitals? Cut. Food for the hungry? Cut. And they're shamelessly calling it pork, conveniently forgetting the decades of pork and porkers that they have supported at every turn. Think Ted Stevens. Think Tom DeLay. Think Bush taxcuts that hugely increased the income of the top one-half of one per cent of the taxpayers, while giving nothing to the working people.

Meanwhile, working people everywhere, especially those who've been laid off or are getting their guts eaten out from the inside from the stress and worry of coming unemployment, are really really really eager to see the goddamned bill pass. People, what can I tell you? If you elected a Republican to office, or your neighbours did, man, you got screwed! What can you do about it? A hella lot if you got laid off. Go to their offices and sit down there and refuse to leave until they talk to you. Call them on the phone (use THEIR office phone if you need to call Washington, or get THEIR staffers to contact the asshole for you) and tell them you NEED that stimulus. You need those 150,000 jobs in your city or your county or your state. Go to your local library and get on the internet and send them email. Draft your kids into the effort as well. Take their pictures, make a postcard of them, and mail it to your Congresscritter, and let the kids write the message. "My Daddy got laid off, please pass the stimulus." Or whatever.

Because these assholes are all making six-figure salaries, and they have friends who wine them and dine them and fly them around in private jets, yaknow? They have no idea what it's like to not be able to make your car payment. They probably haven't had to make a car payment for over 20 years. The last time they were looking for a car and actually had to fork out money to buy one, cars cost, like $15K or less.

The Republicans will do everything they can to turn this bill into a useless pile of steaming bullcrap. It's up to us to put the heat on all our lawmakers. They can't do this to us. I'm sick of hearing of one person after another out of work, run out of benefits, underemployed, looking for shitwork to stay alive, moving back to Mom and Dad's with the kids. It's so not OK.

Our President is going on the road to talk to the American people, and all over the country, people are so excited that he might show up in their town. Because the people support their President, and he supports us, you know? He's doing his best to make sure we have enough money to keep our police force up to a safe level, to keep our firefighters employed, to keep us safe, and in our homes, and he knows that we really want this stimulus bill.

So let's not let the media lie their asses off as usual about how this is some kind of illusory "battle" between our President and Lush Rimbowl. It's not. The media is doing their song and dance because they think their job is to sell papers or generate hits for their sites, rather than to keep the American people informed. Enough already, you sods. Bugger off. And as for the Republican Party? If you want ANY seats left in Congress, get off your goddamn asses and vote for the Stimulus bill NOW.

*Note: PDF of full text of the Senate Bill, best viewed in Internet Exploiter or Safari.

Bonus gratifying news: It appears that the Powers That Be might be getting their listen on. Timothy Geithner is flying coach to his job, for a change. Let's see when the remaining members of the Congressional Swine do likewise. (Except Nancy Pelosi - she's third in line for the Presidency and has to fly with top security.)

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Men are Dogs. Who Cares?

by Sirenita Lake

Barack Obama is a cool drink of water for those of us who remember Ronald Reagan. I haven’t felt this positive about the direction of the country since our troops were pulled out of Vietnam. But Barack Obama was not my first choice in the Democratic primary. It was John Edwards, a thoughtful, thorough politician on the right side of the issues, who had a fair amount of charisma and more experience than Obama. My next choice was Hillary Clinton. So, delighted as I am in Obama’s election, much as I love him, and as great a president as I expect him to be, I have some emotion invested in his primary opponents.

I could not be more satisfied that Hillary is our new Secretary of State. If I could have picked a job for her in the new administration, that would it. Obama has been admirably prepared to make his executive appointments from a politically progressive or at least highly skilled and ideologically flexible talent pool. So where is John Edwards, my fantasy Labor Secretary? Sitting it out, having become toxic after revelations of an affair during his wife’s illness.

Modern American views on extramarital sex, for men as well as for women, are as extreme as, say, Middle Eastern views on women’s sexual freedom. Movies, TV shows, your friends, all reinforce the idea that the worst thing a husband can do is have sex outside the marriage. The wife is torn apart, her trust shattered, her life derailed, the previously fine marriage is in tatters, because her man did the nasty with another woman.

I don’t get it. The need to dictate what someone else does with his body seems like just one more American emotional excess, like the need to always have your space (you know how many people in the world have their space?), to display your feelings in public, to avoid uncomfortable situations, especially with people who are not like you, to have your crimes excused because you weren’t feeling well, and to have constant emotional reinforcement.

How can a wife help but be hurt? Well, there are rules. He has to treat you with love and respect. The dog should not take the rent money and blow it on a babe. He must not come home with an STD. He should take his lead from you as far as any public acknowledgement of, and affectionate behavior with, his mistress or fling. He should avoid becoming involved with neurotic women who will expect him to leave you and marry them, just because they are younger and more fertile.

Your marriage is primary and believe it or not, a man can have affairs and avoid hurting it by picking the right girlfriends. Bored housewives are good. Tortured artists married to their work are good. Traveling businesswomen are good. Anyone who just wants sex and a little company is good. Yes, women can want these things, now that we are not all Victorians. There are women who just want some fun and don’t want to poach your man. How bad can it be?

However tragically a woman reacts to her husband’s doggy behavior, can we please call a moratorium on public discussions of other people’s--particularly politicians’--sex lives? I say this as someone who has advocated sexual freedom, openly discussed sexual issues, attended sex-themed events and published stuff that may shock you. Sex is not a taboo subject or activity for me, and maybe I’m jaded. On the other hand, as a Latina, maybe I come from a culture less idealistic and more realistic, which encourages us to respect others’ privacy out of politeness and an expectation of reciprocity.

I simply do not want to read media accounts of sexual peccadillos. More, I do not care. That’s right, I’m so lost to morality and proper feeling that I do not want to choose my public servants on the basis of what they do in bed. I have carefully considered the issue and have not found any correlation between, say, insight into the economic plight of the American worker and a desire to have sex with someone not your wife. Look at a couple of our favorite presidents, FDR and JFK. Try to find a mistake or weakness in their administrations traceable to extramarital sex. Can’t do it.

My husband disagrees. He says it’s a character issue. It’s not that a politician had sex, it’s that he lied about it. That’s why Clinton was criticized and Giuliani got a break. I don’t buy it. I think Clinton lied because he cared about his wife’s feelings, whereas Giuliani wanted to rub his wife’s nose in his affair. Clinton was the more honorable in my opinion.

Anyway, no one should ever have to make the choice between lying or embarrassing his family over something legal but private. As Obama ushers in an era of pragmatism over ideology, can we please go back to what worked in the past, a media policy of "don’t ask, don’t tell" with respect to a politician’s sex life? Imagine FDR having to take time out from the depression or the war to explain his relationship with Lucy Mercer to an entitled, curious public. Our modern prurient, politco-paparazzo reportage is a waste of time and embarrasses us in front of the world. Even puritanical fundamentalist Muslims take having a bunch of wives for granted.

History is different. Just like it’s ok for us to know now that FDR was in a wheelchair, we can handle knowing that he had a mistress. The principals are dead and can’t be hurt. The political system won’t suffer an upheaval and the public will not be bereft of an able politician for an irrelevant reason. History needs to be accurate and anything is fair game. Once Nancy Reagan dies, I don’t mind hearing about all of Ronnie’s affairs--hers, too.

Hypocrisy is also different. If you harp on family values and the sanctity of marriage, if you politicize these private notions to increase your own power and deny rights to others, you are inviting an outing. House Republican leader Newt Gingrich was rightly criticized for divorcing his dying wife for a younger woman. John Edwards has not to my knowledge made the sexual behavior of others an issue, and he deserves privacy, and if it’s not too much, understanding. Maybe watching your wife suffer is hard to bear, maybe a little rest and relaxation in the arms of another woman makes it easier to go back to the task of taking care of her.

I don’t expect to ever know what went on between Edwards and his wife. I’m not even curious. I have enough to do watching the stimulus package. I’m wondering how we are going to make the next leap up the fish ladder of constitutional interpretation to a higher level of worker protections. I’m concerned about Justice Ginsberg’s cancer. I’m busy being affronted by Wall Street bonuses and wondering if golden toilets have heated seats. I trust that Edwards and his wife can work out their stuff without my help.

Meanwhile, my fellow Americans , keep your eye on the political ball, and then to go out and have every kind of sex you’ve ever read about or imagined. You will be completely bored with other people’s sex lives.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Caturday!

That's right, folks, it's that time of week again. Enough with the politics, it's the weekend and despite more medical and legal appointments in the coming week, we're determined to have a good time at La Casa de Los Gatos. Of course, the majority of the inhabitants define "a good time" as "Continuous Napping Interrupted by Brief Sorties Upon Teh Kibble or Teh Litterbox," but hey. There's a daisy chain of three snoring cats (I know. Who ever thought cats snored? But they do. Tiny little wheezes. Gzzzz-blort.) at the foot of the bed, and the Bandicoot is spooning Gustav at my elbow upon what used to be Gojira's Pillow.

I plan to make them watch a good movie tonight. They assure me that they can watch with their eyes shut. Apparently, their ears are alternate viewing stations.

It's a grim, grimy, gray day here up on the hill and the fog is enveloping the old homestead. A thick cloud of fog, and one can hardly see the hills beyond, where a new raptor has made a nest high in a pine. I want to put out food for the squirrels, but my neighbour's not too thrilled with the idea, mainly because they do damage to her edible garden. Ah, well-a-day, what looks had I, both from old and young!

Perhaps today, I'll make soup! Kitties have very sharp hearing, and one way to get those lazy fuckers out of bed is to vacuum (Flee! Flee! or FLEA, as the case may be). The other is to make soup, and turn on the ventilator fan for the stove. Out they'll go, as quick as can be, and won't return till The Damned Thing has been shut off.

I ought to be a better human. I ought not to cast them out in the cold and the damp. Goodness knows, Bandicoot has a cold (again! He's allergic to his litter!), and Gustav has feline herpes (it causes tearing, which can then lead to bacterial infection). And Gojira, for a purported Russian Blue, is terribly allergic to cold and wet weather. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. It's more a case of being the only girl cat in a rambunctious household full of boy cats, who are very dirty and grubby, as a rule. She has Standards to Uphold. Which require constant licking, cleaning, and grooming. And she's not about to get her fine, princessly pink tongue all filthy from grooming mud out of her precious coat.

But there you are. I am not a better human, just an injured, handicapped human who wants to get the house clean (no mean feat when you can't get up and down steps easily). And I want them, and all those charming little balls of cat fur, OUT of the house. At least until I'm done cleaning, when they'll just rush in with muddy feet, covered from head to foot with pine needles, bugs, plant detritus, the occasional redwood cone, mud, bog, stench, and loose sand, and make me new Knittin' Kittens all over again. Cats are clean, someone said. I'd like to see that twit come visit with this lot.

We once had to cut dessicated baby slugs out of Bandicoot's ample bellyful of white dreadlocks. He likes to lie in the mud and lure the poor little things in, doubtless with promises of moist warmth. Then he promptly transfers himself to a warmer drier surface and the poor little slugs, wrapped around with furry white tendrils, asphyxiate, or suffocate, or dessicate, or whatever it is slugs do, and it's time for gloves, scissors, towels, and restraints.

Have I mentioned he doesn't like having his fur trimmed? Have I mentioned he weighs nearly 20 lb? Have I mentioned that he's as strong as an ox? Or stronger than me, anyway. And he kicks like a mule. And we can't trim his nails because he depends on them to climb trees and deface the redwood deck, two of the great joys of his life. Also to gouge from my body quantities of skin, hair, and subcutaneous cells, leaving bleeding tracks in his wake.

Nevertheless, soup it is. One with chicken and chorizo and potatoes; one Alubias de Tolosa, even though I don't really have the right kind of beans (hey, I'm sorry, I'm so not paying $5/lb for beans, unless they're gold-plated). Simmering, home-made stock, turnips, rutabagas, parsnips, peppers, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, and here and there a little pinch of herbs and spices and hot chilli peppers to warm the innards. Depression food. Coldweather food. Bon appetit, all, and a wonderful weekend.

And here, for your enjoyment, a little kitteh who can tell you all about teh food.

Politics: Telling It Like It Is

A happy confluence that will leave you with plenty to ponder: Bill Moyers talks to Glenn Greenwald and Jay Rosen about the old media and President Obama. Please to listen. Moyers is a true journalist, the likes of whom are long since history. You don't need an introduction to Glenn Greenwald, and if you do, take yourself over to Salon just to read his fine blog. Jay Rosen is a professor of journalism who blogs over at PressThink, and the impetus to the entire citizen-journalist movement that is (please deities it can't come too soon) wiping out the old media as typified by teh money tycoons like Rupert Murdoch (could you lose another $6 billion, please?).

In other news, Republican Senators continue to chop away at the stimulus bill like the feculent asshats that they are. DailyKos blogger Jed L explains that each such cut lowers the number of jobs the bill can help to create. PLEASE contact these buttsuckers and let them know that you want a job, need a job, need that damn income, and if they don't vote to increase the stimulus spending, they will need to start worrying about a job right soon. Here's a list of what those putrid scumbuckets cut from the bill. You'll notice that it's heavy on health, energy, and environment-related stuff.

This fine blog will draw up a list of the Republican and Democratic senators running for re-election in 2010, together with information on how they voted on the issues close to our hearts. We'll let you know when that's ready. We have to combat this kind of attitude in Washington. They're happy to give our dollars to anyone who will blow them, but when we need health care, food, jobs, they give us the finger. Let's see about that.

For those of us who think what the President of the United States does don't matter globally, here's a fine refutation of that common (lack of) wisdom. What each of us does in our lives influences all others with whom we come in contact. The higher up the ladder we rank, the more people fall under our influence. Thus, while Bush was president, we had almost daily reports of policemisconduct, and other countries felt free to pass draconian laws that affected their own people as much as anyone else. Now that Obama is President, we find police refusing to kick people out of their foreclosed homes, while leaders of other countries begin to follow our fine President's fine example and claw back bonuses and emoluments for the scumbag bankers who fucked up the world economy.

Finally, the Iranian PressTV is claiming that Netanyahu, should he win the Israeli elections, will "push Obama on Iran," and will be able to coax the US into either declaring war on Iran or underwriting a war on Iran. Well, Iranian press channels are doubtless biased, but we all know that Israel has been pushing throughout the entire Bush regime for war on Iran. The only remaining question has long been "When?" It's important that we not lose sight of our immediate goals of ending US military involvement abroad and taking care of our own economy and our own hungry, jobless, sick, and poor.

This means putting some time and energy into making it clear to Washington that Israel should not be dictating American foreign policy, and that America needs to heal her own wounds before incurring more for the benefit of Israel, which continues to be a drain on our taxpayer dollars to the tune of several billion a year. Basta! Enough of this shit already.

Bonus activism points: If you happen to have a few spare dollars sitting around and are in the mood to do something good somewhere, consider buying a copy of the barefoot doctor's manual, Where There is No Doctor and sending it to a community that needs it. Copies available from hesperian. For more information, contact hesperian on the net, or call them at 510-845-1447.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Economy: ENOUGH

with the bullshit already! I am sick of this Republican weenie-waving taking place in the halls of Congress. While they're putzing around like the schmucks that they are, two to three million Americans (that's way more than one per cent of the working population) are sitting around out of work, watching the economy crash around their ears.

What the fucking fuck is wrong with the Republicans? Not ONE SINGLE Republican in the House voted for this stimulus bill that is designed to help the taxpayers. Not one. They couldn't rush over fast enough to vote for the big old payout to Wall Street bankers who handed it out in bonuses, or forked it out for their champagne and hookers. What the fuck are these hookers doing that's worth $2,000 an hour, you guys?

David Vitter, Senator from Louisiana, step forward and answer. NewOrleansbloggers allow as how Senator Vitter, (not-so-)affectionately nicknamed "Shitty Vitty" was paying prostitutes to let him poop in adult Pampers and change him. Guys, our Republican Senators will be happy to provide the same service! Of course, I can understand why wealthy businessmen wouldn't want to be looking at the likes of Senator Lindsey "I am NOT in the closet, so there!" Graham, or, worse yet, Thad "Ah kin count to NINE wivout using mah toze" Cochran.

While our bold House Republicans were giving public blow jobs to every banker and greedbag they could get their slimy lips around, they watched those same people lay off 3.6 million of us workers just over the past year, and didn't bat an eye. Thank you American voters for making sure most of those swine were voted OUT of office in November, and we have enough Democrats in the House to pass that bill.

Now the Senators are wrapping their wrinkly, toothless old mouths around a passel of lies and the corporocracy's dicks at the same time. While they enjoy their expensive meals and private jets and cheat on their taxes and suck their buddies off, they watch as we flounder along with the economy.

Fuck this shit! It's gone far enough. Today, corporatAmerica is saying that they will be laying off tens of thousands more in the coming weeks. And our President has had enough. He's fighting back and taking names and royally kicking ass.

Please to amuse yourself:

And then, please to get off your ass and write, fax, email, or call every single one of those Rethuglicans. Buy a hundred postcards if you want and write the same exact message on each of them — something politer than "Pass that fucking stimulus bill, you goddamn cocksuckers, before We The People march on Capitol Hill and rip your fucking dicks out and shove them down your throat with a railroad spike!" I'm thinking. 'Cos, you know, the Post Office gets all delicate about people speaking their mind where/when someone else might see/hear them.

Maybe we could each send a pair of shoes to the Republicans in the Senate, with a little gift tag that says, "We look forward to BOOTing you out of office" or something. Fucking pigshit ratwads that they are. May they all be individually struck by lightning in the crotchal area, whereupon their nasty little dicks will shrivel into something resembling a charred wiener sausage and a couple of really tiny peanuts.

Bonus snarl: Walking pig-turd and professional spooge imitator Alex Castellanos wants y'all to know that "bipartisanship is for wussy Republicans." Fine, then. Let's get rid of the lot of them. We won't get the national energy policy, economic stimulus, human rights improvements, and Constitutional adherence we want with these motherfucking shitsacks because EVERYthing to them is partisan.

Politics: The KO Punch

I like Keith Olbermann, even though I don't always agree with him. He's incisive, articulate, and more lucid than any of the idiots at Faux Noise or the other yammerati the news channels foist upon us.

And, of course, when he is addressing my two least favourite monstrosities, I find him, and his words, utterly, irresistibly, discombobulatingly pleasant.

So, if you will, listen to him address that Satan who is largely responsible for the loss of your job, your health insurance, your 401(k), and possibly, your home.

Begone, foul spawn of Satan! he says. I agree. I'd like Cheney airlifted to Mosul, stripped of any insignia of rank or office (including his tie, belt, shoelaces, and suit jacket), and dropped among the civilian populace. I have a feeling they really won't be as, ummm, inhibited in their welcome to him as his fellow Americans perhaps might.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Stop breeding already!

We have plenty of people, we don't need more! I love TPC's rant below, its a pet one of my own, especially as I sit in stop and mostly stop traffic jams trying to commute my way to work. Anyway, Paul B. Farrell over on MarketWatch wrote a nice article about all this breeding that's been going on. Stop it already!

It kind of reminds me of my college days so many years ago when I took bacteriology. I have this memory of plating out petri dishes of agar with this bug or that and watching the colonies grow into an exponential pile covering the agar, hitting a plateau and then collapsing in death after using up their resources and poisoned by their own waste. Maybe the earth is more open and vibrant than a closed petri dish but I have to believe the end result will be pretty much the same unless we learn to live in a sustainable manner. Having 14 kids ain't it. Sterilize the stinking bitch!

Ok, on reflection I am probably being a little harsh on her. I'm guessing she has a level of stupidity or that she is mentally unbalanced or both. And the clinic that agreed to implant all those embryos ought to have their license pulled and prosecute them for malpractice.

Over population will become a cause for war and violent death with too msny people chasing too few resources. Even if the space to house all these people exists. the resources to house and feed an exploding population doesn't. I fear in the future humanity will be forced into hard and brutal choices to survive unless we put in place the one thing we have that bacteria don't and that is the ability to think.

Health: Subjects Guaranteed To Make Me Unpopular

Overpopulation, Abortion, and Fertility Treatments are the triune deity of today's topic, I'm afraid. Just raise any one or more of these three as a topic of conversation in your venue of choice and prepare to be pelted with, let's call them ungracefully aging fruit and vegetable matter, if not invective and threats against life and limb.

What the fuck, why not live dangerously? I need the excitement. (You try sitting in an eyrie-like bedroom for a year with the very rare trip down the stairs to visit with friends or, worse yet, doctors and lawyers.)

So here goes. Today's topic happily combines all three abuse-inviters, and if you're going to comment, just remember, this here is my territory and while I am absolutely committed to freedom of speech, I have no problem retaliating in kind when someone, anyone, attempts to kick my behind in a hostile fashion. Respectful disagreement is, OTOH, always welcome.

Alright, alright, I'm cuttin' to the chase already, geeze. Nadya Suleman. Who, you ask? Surely everybody from Monterey to Mauritania has heard of Ms. Nadya Suleman, who recently delivered eight babies in California? The media lickspittles, terrified of incurring the venom of the rightwingnut insane elements, keep referring to the sproggen as healthy. Well, according to my research, they were born 9 weeks premature, and anyone with a basic knowledge of biology, anatomy, human health, or medicine knows quite well that the earlier before term a fetus is expelled or delivered, the worse its chances at life. We now have technology that will keep a 1.x-lb preemie alive, but nature did not intend such creatures to live, so what we end up with is a disabled human at some point along the way. Severity of disability depending on various factors, but usually proportionate to the unripeness of said oven-bun. Incidentally, some of Nadya's octuplets weighed less than 2 lb at birth.

In case you're one of the seven people on the planet who hasn't heard of Nadya Suleman, here is all the information you'll ever need.

Nadya Suleman is 33 years old. She lives with her parents, Edward and Angela Suleman, in the community of Whittier, a bumpule in the megacarcinoma of Los Angeles. It would appear from the facts available via teh Googles that Ms. Suleman (and, of course, her parents) is an Iraqi Christian. Her father, Edward, who is in his sixties, is a former Iraqi army dude. He continues to work with the U.S. Army as a translator in Iraq. Her mother Angela is a retired schoolteacher. Reasonably intelligent, well-educated people, wouldn't you say? And clearly very fond (deity alone knows why) and supportive of their daughter.

Nadya is an only child, and apparently always wanted siblings, which her mother declined to provide. Apparently, this caused Nadya to attempt to break world records in procreation. Nadya's name was originally Nadya Doud, which is why it wasn't easy to discover the facts about her immediately. Sometime in the late 90s, she married one Marcos Gutierrez. She left him four years later and returned to the parental home. There were no children born of the marriage. Around that time, she legally changed her name to Nadya Suleman. She divorced Gutierrez last year.

She has a degree in child and adolescent development which, I suppose, is a good thing. Pity she didn't get a degree in something like the effects of overpopulation, or basic biology (you know, a human body takes around two years to recover from each pregnancy, and all that). She started a master's degree in counselling, but dropped out early last year — presumably to start work on her current litter.

Apparently, shortly after that, Nadya's mother, Angela, filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy involving a house that she had bought as an investment. Debts involved in that action totalled a little over a million dollars. However, Mrs. Suleman and her daughter Nadya still own several properties in California.

At some time or another, Nadya was employed at a fertility clinic. There is a rumour that she was injured on the job, and received a settlement that enabled her to afford the (expensive~!) treatment that makes her the mother of a potential sports team.

Now here's where things get very squirrely (no offense intended to squirrels, who can't help being crazy little rodents with megaquantities of teh cute). Nadya has six previous children, all under the age of 7 years. (7, 6, 5, 3, and 2-y.o. twins.) The oldest four were conceived with the assistance, apparently, of a sperm donor named David Solomon.

Nadya's mother, Angela Suleman, claims that all the children were fathered by the same sperm donor. (Who in the universe would be so batshit-crazy as to donate 14 times to the same loony tune? Or if he donated only once, did she just get all 14 started at the same time and stick them in the deep freeze for thawing whenever she felt like having a baybee? Is this woman the poster child for Seriously Wrong Wrongitude?)

Ed and Angela Suleman are divorced, but continue to live together, no doubt in the interest of providing the auxiliary child care that this dingbat needs. (No, I'm not sorry to be so judgmental. A little judgment, applied early and often, would have ensured that cases such as this don't happen. They shouldn't happen.)

Incidentally, Solomon and Suleman are (obviously) the same name. So who is this David Solomon dude? Why isn't he stepping up to the cameras for HIS 15 minutes of fame? How come Ms. Suleman chose not to have Mr. Gutierrez' babies? Or did Mr. Gutierrez precipitously flee when he realized her potential as a baby manufactory?

After all, her father has fled to Iraq, preferring the comfort of a war zone and some chance of death or dismemberment to the joys of hanging around with 14 screaming children. Her mother is threatening to leave the family home before Nadya returns, thereby saddling the imprudent one with all fourteen bundles of joy or, more likely, effluvia (good luck with that, girlie).

Now, the fact is that reproductive endocrinologists, which is what we call folks who, for a living, help the infertile to reproduce, have to adhere to certain standards, in this country, in order to continue practising their brand of medicine. I know lots of people have their knickers in a knot and want to personally hang the IVF folks who made Nadya Suleman's plethora of pregnancies possible, but folks, really. There's more here than meets the eye.

KevinMD says, at his fine blog, while admitting that the subject is outside his own field, nevertheless raises some interesting questions and provides us with links that might help explain exactly how this woman ended up with her own football team of sprog.

Mind you, what has occurred is statistically very rare indeed. A woman carried to term eight fetii, which have ALL survived. AFAICT, this is only the second recorded case in the US.

Over at Fertility File, a reproductive endocrinologist and med school professor with a passion for math and statistical analysis is happy to give you the likelihood of success of Nadya's pregnancy. Dr. Lee combines wit and wisdom with humanity, and provides a good take on this woman's drama.

So how exactly did Nadya Suleman end up with 14 IVF babies? You don't have to be a genius to realize that there is something very wrong with a woman who keeps having children without any visible means of support, economic or practical. Does she really think her mother will be alive for the next 33 years or so to assist with childcare and support?

She already has one autistic child (it's not clear which of the previous six it is, but it's most likely to be a child over 3 years of age, as the diagnostic tools are unable to accurately spot autism in children below that age). Autistic children are a handful. Depending on the severity of the child's autism, it might never be able to live an independent life, and will always need some level of care and assistance.

Moreover, the more premature a child, the greater its chances of autism, according to a recent study. From the article:

Pre-term birth is associated with a long list of health risks for a baby such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, lung problems and vision and hearing loss.

Who is going to pay for the medical care that these children will require?

In addition, safe delivery of the children required 46 staff at the Kaiser Permanente Bellflower hospital. That has to cost a bundle. Who is going to pay the cost of delivery and hospitalization of the mother and children? The mother certainly does not seem in a position to pay.

She showed up at Kaiser three months pregnant, at which time she was advised that she could selectively reduce some of her fetii in order to give the others a better chance. She refused selective reduction, doubtless because of her Christian beliefs, which, apparently, don't extend to being able to feed what you breed.

So the rest of us are now stuck with eight kids who will have impairments at various levels that we taxpayers need to support (for those of you already fuming, consider that each healthy child costs about $1 million to raise, not including those full-potential-tapping pluses like music and dance lessons, or top-notch educational opportunities) over the next 18 years.

Consider the autistic sibling. Consider the mother's employment qualifications and status. Consider that she's going to be way too busy taking care of the kids to even look for work for at least 6 years, when the last of the sprog toddle off to pre-school. Consider that her parents, who appear to be saddled with the financial support of the brood, are in their sixties and might not live out another decade without increasingly expensive health problems or that old nemesis of us all, death.

Whatever happens, don't blame the staff of Kaiser Permanente, who actually managed to save this woman's life (instead, pray that they tied her tubes while she was unconscious so she can never do this again). They had nothing to do with getting her pregnant.

The most interesting aspect of this littering is the reaction to it. You'd think all those god-'n-gun conservatives who want all uterii regulated to ensure maximum fruitfulness would be falling over themselves to aid this woman, no?

No. Take a look around the InnerTubes if you dare, but there's some mighty venomous invective being hurled her way. A lot of it has to do with the fact that she's not white. Some are accusing her of personally trying to undo the Holocaust, and have to be gently reminded that she's not Jewish (you'd think Angela and Ed being her parents' names would've been a huge fucking clue). Some insist she's a Palestinian despite the stunning lack of evidence therefor.

Some want her summarily deported; others want her children forcefully removed; still others are campaigning to boycott any kinderjunk producer who donates to her cause. Why the hatred? After all, Kenny and Bobby McCaughey, proud IVF parents of a litter of seven, despite having produced a previous sprog, got themselves a house, an endless supply of diapers, baby formula, junk food, and god-knows-what-all.

From all accounts the woman appears to be a good mother to her kids, but that's only with the help of a nanny and her mother. Also, she's about to find out that 14 kids is a lot more work than six. And, of course, all of us who are watching our earth dying from too many damned people are eyeing her with a level of cynicism that make me nervous. If everybody had 14 kids, we really would have to stage mass suicide campaigns because we would otherwise starve to death in short order.

Monday, February 02, 2009

Health Care: I Ain't Feelin' Too Good Myself, Now

People, I guess we don't have to remind y'all that the suicide rate among our troops, whom we all support more than god or corned beef, or whatever the Republicans are flapping their gums about this week, has, like, seriously increased? We're talkin' this is the highest it's been in thirty years. (Thanks to nunya at ThePolitickyBitch for the ears-up on this. She has some good questions, so treat yourself to a worthwhile read.)

What, you thought Georgie Porgie was guilty of ordering some 200,000 troops into the field based on lies, and that's where it all ended?

It hasn't ended yet. Dumbya knocked the shit out of this country nine ways to Sunday. He destroyed it, as we all have been saying since, oh, about 2003 and Hurricane Katrina. Some of us were saying it way before, but most of us tried to rally behind the little shit for the sake of national unity. It wasn't until we say the bloated, floating corpses of Katrina that we finally lost all faith in the fucker.

Over at OOIBC, Anti-War, and other such sites, people with more energy and dedication than I have been keeping track of the numbers. Over 4,000 American troops dead, over 150,000 injured, some of them grievously maimed. Over 1 million Iraqis dead, uncounted numbers wounded and maimed (one assumes the injuries are proportionate to those of our troops). Between 3 and 5 million Iraqi refugees, internal and external. Entire neighbourhoods "ethnically cleansed," or to put it more accurately, relieved of any ethnic variety by open, genocidal killings. "Ethnically cleansed" sounds too much like a sanitary procedure, and there's nothing sanitary about pools of blood rotting in the hot desert sun.

We don't know how many Iraqis and Afghanis have committed suicide, other than by blowing themselves up. We don't know how many might be suffering from mental and emotional problems due to the stresses of living in a war zone. What we do know is that our own troops, upon returning home, are not doing so well. In fact, they're doing rather badly. Has anyone heard of anything that our bold Republican leaders and legislators, so quick to approve this war and to threaten anyone who argued against it, have done to take care of our suffering people?

Frankly, I'm feeling pretty shitty myself, today, and it's not just the depressing news. Did you know that certain kinds of medication can eat holes in your gut? That aside. This is a foodie household and when the chief Foodie In Charge can't eat none of that smackalicious pasta sauce with meatballs and sausage and all kinds of tasty stuff, ain't no one here gonna be happy. Not if I can help it. Two days of chicken soup is fucking enough.

So, people are killing themselves. No news there, you say. We're in a recession, you say. It's to be expected, you say. Yeah, I guess. I wish it weren't happening, I wish there was something I could do, or you could do, or we could all do, to fix it, but if there's one thing we learned surviving the mendacious Bushistas, it's that everything takes lots of hard work and the results are never immediate.

Here's a little gratuitous depressionism for those of you as are having just too fucking good a day. Please watch it right through to the end.

We need to do something about this. I can't do anything today. My body is on strike, and I get that. (I'm not as look as I dumb, OK?) But I can resolve to do something tomorrow, and hopefully, the day after, and the day after. One foot after another.

I found this story over at DailyKos, courtesy of nyceve, who has done more to enlighten me (and many others, I'm sure) about the state of health care in the US. We don't need more or better or diferent health insurance. We need health care.

In the interim, if time is weighing heavy on your hands, consider oozing on over to Care2's petition site, and signing a petition to have a special prosecutor appointed to investigate the Bushifarious crimes of the recent era. I'm not sure petitions are entirely helpful but it's a throwaway gesture that does help assess the current mood of the populace.

I'm gonna have to create a torches-and-pitchforks icon for various action items, yaknow?

Finally, a little humour to leaven the endless depression of this post. I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully in better shape. The fight goes on!